In general, fabrics are woven in two dimensions. The warp and fill interlace in a single plane which results in a fabric that has various decorative and surface characteristics. More complex structures for three dimensional fabrics can be created through two processes of double weaving: weaving double weaves in the fill direction which results in tubes across the machine direction as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,116 to Takada et al (1976) or weaving double in the warp direction with a shuttle loom which produces helical circular fabrics in the machine direction as demonstrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,204 to Kitamura et al (1995). Even greater geometric complexity can be realized in U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,545 to Lowe (1987) with three dimensional shaped products can be produced by adjusting spacing between the warp and fill yarns at critical interlaces and redirecting the geometry. Other relevant multi-layer weave structures have been produced to create open spaces for electronics in U.S. Pat. No. 7,144,830 to Hill et al (2006).
Full Fashion seamless shirts have been produced on shuttle looms in order to eliminate side seams in U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,551 to Jayaramen et al (2000). The elimination of the side seam is particularly advantageous when producing garments that contain yarns requiring continuous weaving. Such yarns would be those that contain optics, electronics, metal, or glass.
The object of this invention is to provide a weaving process for the production of full fashioned stretch woven garments which can incorporate multiple layers and sizes of pouches. The pouches are capable of carrying supplies and equipment next to the body. The garment is produced on a jacquard machine with an electronic shuttle-less loom.
While shuttle looms provide the mechanism to produce seamless weaving they do not have a high level of control over the set tensions of the fill yarns. Tension control is particularly critical when weaving elastomeric yarns with a high degree of extension. In the case of a shuttle loom it is the winding of the fill yarn onto a pirn that does not give any measure of uniformity in the amount of stretch. For rigid yarns this is not a critical issue, however, for elastomeric yarns the pirns are not capable of controlling a consistent distribution of tension from selvage to selvage, pick to pick, or pirn to pirn.
In order to produce a garment that can compress weighted objects close to the body and maintain body comfort the performance characteristic that are required are: controlled modulus, consistent level of stretch and good recovery. In addition, the high modulus and stretch capacities require extremely high stability and strength at any seam location where the stretch yarns are being stressed. Sewn seems often exhibit snap back, grinning, breaks, and yarn slippage at the seam line for compression garments. Therefore, a need exists for a process to produce such a full fashion stretch garment which eliminates critical cut and sew operations across the stretch direction for high modulus compression garments.
Accordingly, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide full fashioned garments having such desirable attributes as outlined above.